Heretofore in the practice of dentistry, steps have been taken to restore teeth which have either been broken or decayed. One of the known and heretofore practiced methods has been to utilize so-called retention pins which are threaded and/or otherwise provided with external surfaces to aid retention in a tooth and which have flattened head portions thereon. The practice included removal of the decayed or broken portions of a tooth to be restored, drilling of bores or holes in the remaining tooth structure, inserting threaded or the like retention pins in such holes or bores in the natural tooth intra-coronally, placement of restorative material in the desired area, shaping and dressing of the restorative material and in some instances placing a cap or the like on the so-restored tooth.
As is known in the art the utilization in the intra-coronal space or area of a tooth limits to a substantial extent access and use of practical instruments and this is especially applicable where such retention pins after placement are to be severed to the desired extending length which remains projecting from the natural tooth. Another method consists in the retention pins being cut to size externally of a patient's mouth and then put in place, and generally is applicable to the old Markley type which is cut to size and then cemented in place. The present invention permits placement of a retention pin such as a stainless steel threaded pin having a flattened head thereon in a drilled bore intra-coronally of a tooth which has been prepared for reception in the bores of these pins and subsequently the pins can be cut to length by means of the present invention and the so-cut end can be retained by the invention for removal from the mouth of the patient. No known tool exists providing positive retention of the cut particle to prevent aspiration or ingestion by the patient or preventing eye injury to the clinician.